


Confluence

by Kantayra



Category: Seiyou Kottou Yougashiten | Antique Bakery
Genre: Get Together, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-23
Updated: 2011-12-23
Packaged: 2017-10-27 22:03:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,155
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/300527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kantayra/pseuds/Kantayra
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tachibana and Ono never thought they were becoming a couple. Somehow, they just flowed together naturally, when all was said and done.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Confluence

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mellish](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mellish/gifts).



Tachibana didn’t know how they became best friends. They just did.

With the whirlwind that surrounded Antique, and Kanda and Chikage working out their own paths, in the end it was just Tachibana and Ono left and the deep-seated comfort between them. If anyone had asked Tachibana beforehand whether he and Ono were that close, he wouldn’t have thought so. But, at the end of the day, when it was the two of them alone, things felt quieter around Antique but still _complete_ somehow.

They never talked about it. They simply moved past each other, around each other, toward each other silently, simply, and naturally. Either they had no need for words or neither of them were the type to discuss their feelings. It didn’t matter which, to Tachibana at least.

Tachibana would rush into the kitchen and complain that they were almost out of tortes, and Ono would smile and, more often than not, had exactly what Tachibana needed coming right out of the oven.

Or Ono would somehow corner Tachibana behind the counter to test his latest concoction, and Tachibana would pretend he only grudgingly tasted the morsel on the fork Ono held out for him, chew it slowly, and then pronounce, “It tastes like sugar.”

And the two of them would smile and then giggle like they were kids and it was an in-joke that only the two of them got.

***

Tachibana didn’t know when they started dating. They just did.

At the end of a long day, they were both tired and needed to relax and Tachibana needed booze and Ono needed sex. Ono’s bar was a convenient place to meet both their needs, and one night they just fell into stride together and arrived together, with as little awkwardness as the two of them could ever manage.

“Still working on that same straight boy?” the bartender shook his head at Ono. “Don’t tell me you’re losing your touch.”

“The day I start having to work on straight boys, just put me out of my misery, okay?” Ono joked lightly, although there was something tight behind his eyes.

The bartender grunted and poured a glass of the hardest liquor he had for Tachibana. And, with that, Tachibana promptly decided this was his favorite bar of all time.

He and Ono came together, off and on, after that. Most nights Ono went home with other men that, the bartender informed Tachibana, were very attractive.

Then, the most nights turned into some nights.

Then occasional nights.

And, one night when Tachibana and Ono sat together curled up in one of the booths at the back, exchanging ridiculous drinking stories about their youth, Tachibana suddenly realized that Ono wasn’t going home with other men on their nights together at all anymore.

“I won’t be young forever,” Ono sighed another night.

He didn’t say much more than that, but Tachibana followed the thought to its inevitable conclusion: _The wild nights will come to an end. I’ll need to find someone before then. Settle down. Be comfortable. Compatible._

Tachibana thought that maybe he’d been the comfortable, compatible one for a long time now and hadn’t even realized it.

Ono’s knee brushed Tachibana’s under the table.

Tachibana didn’t pull away. He wondered how drunk he was. Or maybe he’d finally overcome his kneejerk reaction from all those years ago.

Maybe.

Possibly.

Probably not.

***

Tachibana didn’t know when they started living together. They just did.

The space was just there, vacated when Chikage had left, and Tachibana got drunk enough on plenty of nights, that once or twice Ono had had to half-support him as he walked home. It only made sense that sometimes Ono was tipsy, too, and it made more sense for him to fill the empty space in Tachibana’s home.

And the thing about empty spaces was that they liked to be filled. Tachibana had the thought drunkenly one night, and he thought it sounded vaguely pornographic in a way that was almost disturbing.

Ono made excellent breakfast (even though he frequently imposed French toast or crepes on Tachibana, which were far to sweet), and he dealt masterfully with Tachibana’s hangovers, and one night when Tachibana burst from fitful dreams, Ono was right there, where Chikage had been until so recently, his hand gentle and warm on Tachibana’s wrist.

Tachibana thought he should probably make Ono go. It had felt like a real accomplishment, a sort of independence, when Chikage had finally moved out because Tachibana could face his nightmares alone now. Letting Ono slip into that space was just another sort of regression, wasn’t it?

And, while Ono never said a word, Tachibana wondered sometimes what hid behind those seemingly placid eyes. Was Tachibana leading Ono on? Would it be less cruel to rip this Band-Aid off now, before Ono’s hopes got up again?

Or was Tachibana being conceited that Ono would even still look at an old man like him?

Tachibana thought that he should probably say something, but time time wore on and so did Tachibana’s resistance.

By the time it became a _thing_ – Ono’s things started materializing here and there around Tachibana’s apartment, until eventually the distinction between “Tachibana’s” and “Ono’s” became meaningless – Tachibana had nothing left to say on the matter at all.

It was what it was, and that was that.

***

Tachibana didn’t know when they started sleeping together. They just did.

It began with the nightmares, of course, as it always did for Tachibana and – he was starting to accept – probably always would. Ono was there, and Tachibana shoved him away in a blind panic, because Ono’s body was hard and muscular and _too similar_.

But then something shifted. Ono didn’t try to hold on. He just stayed, still and silent, and let Tachibana find what he needed.

And before Tachibana knew what was happening, he was clutching at Ono, sweating and shaking, and it struck Tachibana all of a sudden that Ono wasn’t similar at all. He was completely different. He was something important, something precious, something Tachibana could cling to to stabilize himself once again.

After Tachibana’s body stopped wracking, Ono pulled away to leave, but Tachibana’s fingers tightened around him in response. Ono froze, his entire body coiled for one moment, and then he slowly realized in Tachibana’s arms. He felt like melting ice: hard and cold one second, and warm and liquid the next.

Ono curled around Tachibana on the bed, and Tachibana was so tired by that point that he didn’t even register what he had begun.

The next morning, Tachibana woke up, and Ono was warm and _fit_ , and it was unthinkable that this bridge could ever be uncrossed again. There was simply nothing more to say.

***

Tachibana didn’t know when they became lovers. They just did. And, the first night they consummated their love, Tachibana thought he’d been pretty silly not to realize that, at heart, they’d been lovers all along.


End file.
